Every year we take off from our Winter Camp and go go go all summer... Hiking, riding, more hiking, photographing day trips... goin' down the road, zig zagging all over the west... knocking the dust of a long slow winter off the truck.
Seems like there's little time to really think much about where we're going... we just go; and then we retreat back to the desert in front of the coming winter.
It's that long winter in the sunny south when things slow down. The silent solitude of the desert lets me stand back and "judge" the past season... and how I might want to adjust the one coming up.
I have plenty of time to stand, looking out at the mountains so many miles away... and weigh which way my future should travel... and sort through the "stuff" I continue to freight around.
Each season my "outfit" seems to get lighter. Fewer clothes, fewer tools, simplified gadgets... The benefit of the occasional "inventory" is that the lighter weight I've been ending up with seems to allow easier breathing. ;)
A lot of Gadgets and Misc property are nice bits, but Only if they DO something... Only if they serve ME. Sounds mighty selfish don't it? But plain and simple; if they don't serve Me... I'm serving them. In this case there's no such thing as balance. The scales tip one way or the other.
My computers (2), my Cameras (down to one for a lil' while), my air card are all electronic gadgets that on occasion... cause me a great hassle. Like now when the main laptop remains non operational due to some internal hardware or software glitch I've been unable to get solved...
Those things, as great as their hassle, still Serve. They are absolute necessities for me to produce a hefty part of our income... so... I endure their occasional gyrations... though I am always searching for simplified ways of doing what they do.
...then... Folks are always trying to get me to hook on to some new "social" fad... this forum, that game, some time-sucking gee gaw... and they do that without success. I have my blogs and my websites... there's e-mail and cell phone texts... and there's the ever present love/hate presence of Facebook...
That's plenty for this old buster, with his feet trying to balance in two worlds, to deal with. If folks that want to, can't maintain commo with me with one of those... sorry... it's all I'm dealing with.
... This past summer and fall I spent... as we wandered, too much time it turns out, pondering a change to another/ a new / a different rig... the threat of a rig failure got a foothold in my head and tarnished our travels here and there.
Now, sitting here sheltered under the shade screen, slung from the awning of our rig, on a quiet, sunny, morning in the Spirit Liberating space of the Arizona Desert...
... the whole view can come back into focus... and balance. Which brings on the realization that for me... swapping rigs, at least for now... is a fools errand..
I can take on the burden of a "New" rig... or Keep this one. I can buy the parts to keep our old Jayco Eagle on the road... IF ... they should fail... or pay the price of a "New" rig... every month... failure or not.
In the quiet of this camp it seems a pretty simple choice.
This old rig ~the mobile version of This Old House! ;) ~ keeps the wind off, it keeps the rain out... and in the next few months the debt that still burdens it (Due to the failure of the system we all live in) will be an unpleasant memory.
... in effect... making nearly a 20% pay raise for us! I can live with that! :)
One more time... the Arizona Dust cleared my Vision. Suh-Wheet!
I pack along no anticipation that the difficulties that repeatedly blow up will one day vanish... nirvana only exists in the minds of socialists... but with each passing day and month... their power to change the path I've chosen grow weaker and weaker.
One day, they will become nothing more than a short stop on the trail to pull a sticker out of my sock... and will occupy no more memory than that.
I have discovered that the Fable of The Healing Power of the Open Road... is No Fable.
The future... belongs to those who Seize it.
Armored by the Power of the Open Road
Brian
6 comments:
a new book title??? "The healing power of the open road"
Teri; Hmmmm.... What a GOOD idea! ;)
My father used to say that the least expensive rig you'll ever own is the one you already own.
Of course when the repairs start equaling payments......
Howiet
Cowboy Brian... has it been a year already since we sat down together for Thanksgiving Day dinner? We'll always remember our holiday dinner in the desert with you. This year you're back in the same spot and we're clear on the other side of the country. Ahhh, the wondering life.
I think you made the right choice re keeping your rig. Maybe you are like me. I tend to want to perfect things that are already good enough. It's a sickness, I tell ya.
Howiet; and this one is poised to get cheaper!
Thom; I'm dang near parked in the same tracks! ... And we shared Thanksgiving Dinner with another reader! ;) This time I cooked... The para medics said she should be fine in a day or so ;)
Don; Yeah... I got a list of work to do. How come I can't hear myself say "good enough"? :)
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